Does bear spray go bad?

I researched this topic once, having used bear spray and it was a 3-4 year shelf life. It does not degrade to zero percent, it just loses some of its potency. I'd definitely go for new on the 5th year though. I forget where I read this, probably some FAQ page on one of the vendor's sites (there are about 3-4 brands to research). I'll leave that chase to you though, I just remember the rule of thumb coming away from the research.

I'll add that I had a regular pepper spray can that the stuff ate right through–perforating it. Whether it was the active ingredient, the propellant or a flaw in the inner coating I'll never know, but the inside looked pretty bad.

Are bear spray cans date-stamped?

How do you dispose of out dated cans?

If you spray the ingredients out to get useful pracdice from the spray, which is what I did, you can dispose of it in the trash then. Make sure you spray downwind.

My two cents…

I've worked for a variety of local and federal law enforcement, each with the latest and greatest pepper/mace-type spray as part of our offensive non-lethal resources. Each manufacturer of these sprays always told us to replace them every 1-2 years because the potency does degrade over time. I have no reason to believe bear sprays are any different due to the similarities in propellant delivery and mixture.

One way to keep the spray lasting longer, believe it or not, is to gently shake it up every now and then. If you choose to shake it up a bit, probably the safest environment is outside, down wind of any concerns, and keep your finger off the trigger.